Feds Recant Stop-Work Order, Allowing Empire Wind to Resume Turbine Work

Still part of the public record for Empire Wind, however, is a pro-wind federal agency that has “numerous issues of concern” about the project and marine mammals.

In a sudden about-face, the Department of the Interior (DOI) has allowed Empire Wind, an offshore wind project situated around 15 miles south of Long Island, N.Y., and pointing directly at Sandy Hook, N.J., to resume construction.

Just a little over a month ago, the DOI secretary sent Empire (owned by the Norway-based company Equinor) a stop-work order, saying it needed time to review the “environmental analysis” of the Empire Wind project and make sure it is “carried out in a manner that provides for protection of the environment…”

Empire Wind, which at the time the letter was issued was obliterating the seabed by dumping billions of pounds of rocks in the water in preparation for pounding in 180-foot steel monopiles, was incensed, calling the stop-work order “unlawful.”

Yet, according to an article in E&E News, just hours before the construction ban was lifted, it noted that Equinor had made the decision not to challenge the order, stating that if work doesn’t start up again soon, “the project will be cancelled.”

In a cheesy thank-you note, Equinor CEO Anders Opedal seemed to forward the idea that it was the “constructive collaboration” of Democratic N.Y. Governor Kathy Hochul with the Trump Administration that turned the tide. He also thanked the Norwegian Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, who “raised the situation with the U.S. administration.”

Still standing is a March petition from Save the East Coast and Protect Our Coast – LINY, requesting that the Environmental Protection Agency revoke Empire Wind’s Clean Air Act permit due to numerous deficiencies. While a Clean Air Act permit seems minor compared to an action by the Department of the Interior, that detail is what upended the Atlantic Shores project off the coast of New Jersey.

In mid-March, a petition filed last year by the N.J. group Save LBI with the EPA regarding the same type of permit was granted, meaning the Atlantic Shores project is no longer fully permitted and not able to begin construction. Whether the pending petition against Empire Wind will be as successful remains to be seen.

But one of the little-known ongoing critics of how NOAA Fisheries (a.k.a. the National Marine Fisheries Service) conducts its offshore wind business is none other than a pro-wind federal agency. And it had a lot to say about Empire Wind and marine mammals.

“Inconsistencies, omissions, errors, and deficiencies”

For years the Marine Mammal Commission, a federal agency spawned by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, has been sending NOAA Fisheries a laundry list of negative comments and criticism about the many “deficiencies” in its modeling reports for “takes” of marine mammals, something also referred to as “incidental harassment authorizations.”

Takes are defined as activities that “harass, hunt, capture, or kill, or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine mammal,” something that is exceptionally illegal – unless you get permission from NOAA to do it.

Currently, Empire Wind holds a Letter of Authorization issued by NOAA Fisheries to “take” during five years of construction an astonishing 44,998 marine mammals, including humpback, minke, and sei whales, as well as the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. But the “common dolphin” appears to bear the brunt of Empire Wind construction, with up to 24,000 allowed to be affected by the soon-to-be impact driving of monopiles, acoustic pollution and vibrations, increased vessel traffic, and more.

In 2023 the Marine Mammal Commission wrote to NOAA with “numerous issues of concern” over data regarding the planned “take” permit of marine mammals by Empire Wind. And those concerns were nothing new. In fact, the Commission had contacted NOAA so many times in the past with “similar and ongoing issues,” receiving an “absence of responses,” that it simply referred NOAA to its previous correspondence.

For example, in 2021, the Commission stated that the application for South Fork Wind contained “numerous inconsistencies, omissions, errors, and deficiencies,” it underestimated how many whales and other marine mammals may be affected by pile-driving noise, confused data and didn’t propose sufficient monitoring efforts to protect North Atlantic Right Whales from entering the “exclusion zone” of construction activity.

The Commission concluded by saying that the quality of NOAA Fisheries' “notices and proposed authorizations has been diminishing for a number of years.”

Ecology Eclipsed by Employment

On May 5^th, a lawsuit filed by attorneys general from 17 states, including New Jersey, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Colorado and Maryland, is attempting to challenge the Trump administration’s “day one” executive order that paused permits and loans for offshore and onshore wind projects, asking for a preliminary injunction to start up the permitting process immediately.

Joining in as a “friend of the court” are 10 big-name environmental groups who asked the court to “lift the halt on approval of wind permits immediately.”

Of interest, none of the quotes listed for reprint from groups such as the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund, and the National Wildlife Federation included any mention of marine or avian life, but only dealt with jobs, local economic benefits, and “cheaper energy.”

Perhaps they should consult with all those dolphins and whales about to be
”harassed” by Empire Wind.